Vaccination

Canine Leptospirosis Vaccination Decisions: Endemic Spread and Risk-Based Choices

Leptospirosis a zoonotic bacterial disease that affects many species, including dogs. The infection can cause mild flu-like symptoms or can turn into a life-threatening disease. Leptospirosis responds well to antibiotics—if treatment starts early. The real problem is recognizing it in time. Early symptoms often look like a mild flu—lethargy, poor appetite, vomiting—so diagnosis is frequently delayed. By then, the bacteria…

by Jana Rade

Dog Health and Vaccines: Problems With Canine Over-Vaccination

First and foremost, vaccinations are an important component of health care, prevention, and wellness for your dog. I am, by no means, recommending not vaccinating your dog. It is vitally important to vaccinate appropriately. For the core vaccines of distemper, parvo, adenovirus (together called DAP), and rabies, appropriate vaccination is as young puppies not before nine weeks of age and…

by Dr. Daniel Beatty, DVM

Dog Vaccination Concerns: Vaccinating Your Dog and Potential Side Effects

Does your dog need to be vaccinated? Are you pro vaccinations or do you refuse to consider them? In the past, dogs routinely received vaccination against just about anything we could think of. The reasoning was the off-chance of exposure, in which case the vaccine should protect the dog. Today, we recognize that vaccines can have a downside as well. …

by Dr. Lorie Huston

Canine Lyme Vaccination: Veterinarians Share Their Opinion About Lyme Vaccination in Dogs – Yay or Nay?

Is canine Lyme vaccination a useful and safe way to prevent Lyme disease in your dog? After a year of finding ticks on Cookie back-to-back, we were deliberating what the best options were to protect her from tick-borne infections. Lyme disease is the disease most commonly transferred by ticks. Lyme vaccine did make it on the list of things we…

by Jana Rade

Canine Rabies Prevention: Cookie’s Rabies Booster

Rabies is one of the most devastating viral diseases affecting dogs. Time goes by too quickly. Especially when it comes to vaccination boosters. Apparently, it’s been three years already since Cookie’s last one for rabies. I hate having to booster. And generally, I don’t. Except for rabies. Cookie would have also been due for parvo and distemper, but with those, we…

by Jana Rade

Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer by day, dog health advocate, dog writer, member of the Dog Writers Association of America, and an award-winning author in my spare time. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Endless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care into my own hands. I learned the hard way that simply seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough, but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to finally get a diagnosis for her initial issue. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn, and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian, and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to use 20 years of hard-earned experience to save others from the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way, as I did.

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